BattleofMosul

France 2016, 60 min, Arabic and French, Hebrew & English subtitles

After months of constant fighting, the battle over Mosul had turned into a war of attrition. French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy was there for the first few weeks. Embedded with Kurdish forces, he joined the campaign to liberate the Nineveh province in northern Iraq from ISIL forces. Lévy, who had joined Kurdish militias in his previous film (“Peshmerga”), examines the ancient expanses and the trails of destruction left in them, looking for points of connection, where the Yazidis, Christians, and Muslims display mutual compassion. And he finds such moments, among the horrible images of death, fear, and hunger. When the Kurds entrust the fighting to the Iraqi special Golden Division, Lévy has no qualms about finding the similarities between them and the enemy, and wonders how the West can pay its debt to the Peshmerga.

CV

Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French philosopher and one of the most esteemed and bestselling writers in Europe. He is the author of over 30 books, including works of philosophy, fiction, and biography. American Vertigo.